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Blue Sky (formerly Warren Edward Johnson) is an American painter and sculptor [1] best known for his mural, Tunnelvision . [2]
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Blue Sky (formerly Warren Edward Johnson) is an American painter and sculptor [1] best known for his mural, Tunnelvision . [2]
Blue Sky was born on September 18, 1938, in Columbia, South Carolina, as Warren Edward Johnson. In 1954, his first foray into art won him a national poster competition [2] two years before he graduated from Dreher High School. He designed and drew the Dreher Blue Devil used by the school. [3] For the next six years, he served as a jet aircraft technician in the Air National Guard, 169th Cameron Squad, while working several different jobs to pay for college – including as a parade float builder, a layout artist, and a dance instructor, among others. [2]
Sky attended the University of South Carolina [4] from 1958 to 1964. During this time, he received instruction from the Ash Can painter Edmund Yaghjian. Meanwhile, he sold original works through USC student art auctions at McMaster College. At the Springs Mills Show in 1964, in which over 700 artists participated, he was judged "best of show" by Henry Geldzahler, who was then curator of modern art at the Metropolitan Museum. Sky was then invited to study at the Art Students League of New York, where he lived and worked for the next year.
Upon moving back to Columbia in 1966, Sky worked as a draftsman and conceptual artist for Wilbur Smith & Associates before returning to USC for graduate school. In 1970, he graduated, earning a Master of Education because the university had not yet been certified to award a Master of Fine Arts.
In 1974, Sky legally changed his name from Warren Edward Johnson to Blue Sky. [4] He signed paintings before this year with the abbreviation "WAR."
In 2000, Sky was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian state honor, for his contributions to the arts - particularly for painting the state's first large-scale public mural in 1975. [2]
Sky has been solely supported by his art since 1970. Although he is best known for his public art, many of his public projects are self-funded, and his living is earned primarily through the sale of original artwork through the Blue Sky Gallery, which is currently located in the renovated Arcade Mall in Columbia, SC. [5]
Sometime after graduating, Sky took an interest in painting a mural on the wall of the Federal Land Bank in Columbia. 34°00′24″N81°01′55″W / 34.006753°N 81.03203°W He applied to the South Carolina Arts Commission several times before they accepted his concept design for Tunnelvision and told him to approach the Federal Land Bank for funding. The bank refused to fund the project, but agreed to grant him permission to use the wall on the condition that he wasn't a communist (see: Diego Rivera).
Sky claims that the idea for Tunnelvision appeared to him in a dream. Although the work is technically rendered in trompe-l'œil style, Sky intended the mural to have a spiritual impact as well: a "window" to transcendental reality. Sky has restored and fully repainted the mural five times, and each version has featured at least one new element to extend the metaphor; for example, the most recent addition, a street sign which reads, "One Way." Tunnelvision has earned Sky the widest recognition, starting with an article in a 1976 issue of People magazine. [6]
Columbia is the capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-most populous city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. It is the center of the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 858,302 in 2023, and is the 70th-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States. The name Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, derived from the name of Christopher Columbus, who explored for the Spanish Crown. Columbia is often abbreviated as Cola, leading to its nickname as "Soda City".
Richland County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 416,147, making it the second-most populous county in South Carolina, behind only Greenville County. The county seat and largest community is Columbia, the state capital. The county was established on March 12, 1785. Richland County is part of the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2020, the center of population of South Carolina was located in Richland County, in the city of Columbia. The county is also the location of the geographic center of South Carolina, southeast of Columbia.
Lexington County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 293,991. Its county seat and largest community is Lexington. The county was chartered in 1785 and was named in commemoration of Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the Battle of Lexington in the American Revolutionary War. Lexington County is the sixth-most populous county in South Carolina by population and is part of the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located in the Midlands region of South Carolina.
Cayce is a city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, along the Congaree River. The population was 12,528 at the 2010 census and rose to 13,789 in the 2020 United States Census, and it is the third-most populated municipality in Lexington County. The city is primarily in Lexington County, with additional, predominantly rural land to the east in Richland County. Cayce is part of the Columbia Metropolitan Statistical Area and is within South Carolina's Midlands region.
The South Carolina State Museum is a museum dedicated to the history of South Carolina. It has four floors of permanent and changing exhibits, a digital dome planetarium, 4D interactive theater, and an observatory. The State Museum is located along the banks of the Congaree River in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. It is the largest museum in the state, and is a Smithsonian Affiliate and part of the American Alliance of Museums. Positioned on an old shipping canal that dates back to pre-Civil War times, the museum is widely recognized as a resource for South Carolina history and lifestyle.
The Congaree River is a short but wide river in South Carolina in the United States; It flows for approximately 53 miles (85 km). The river serves an important role as the final outlet channel for the entire Lower Saluda and Lower Broad watersheds, before merging with the Wateree River just north of Lake Marion to form the Santee River.
The Midlands region of South Carolina is the middle area of the state. The region's main center is Columbia, the state's capital. The Midlands is so named because it is halfway point between the Upstate and the Lowcountry. The main area code is 803.
The Saluda River is a principal tributary of the Congaree River, about 200 mi (320 km) long, in northern and western South Carolina in the United States. Via the Congaree River, it is part of the watershed of the Santee River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean.
Robert D. "Bob" Coble is a former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina. Coble has been a resident of Columbia for most of his life having graduated from Dreher High School in 1971 where he was student body president. Coble and Frannie Heizer won the 1971 South Carolina State High School Debate Championship. Coble graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1975 cum laude and the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1978 cum laude. Coble was elected to the Richland County Council in 1985 and served until 1988. Coble was elected Mayor of Columbia South Carolina in 1990 and served until 2010. Mayor Coble was elected Mayor five times and in his last re-election in 2006 received 64% of the citywide vote. He was succeeded as mayor by Steve Benjamin. Coble is married to Beth Coble, the daughter of former South Carolina Attorney General Daniel R. McLeod in 1978. They are the parents of six children and twelve grandchildren.
South Carolina Highway 277 (SC 277) is a 8.140-mile (13.100 km) state highway in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It travels from U.S. Route 76 (US 76) in downtown Columbia to Interstate 77 in Dentsville in Richland County. For most of its length, it is a controlled-access highway conforming to interstate standards. The highway serves as a spur into Columbia from its northeastern suburbs and from intercity traffic traveling from I-77 and I-20. The freeway portion of SC 277 is called the Northeastern Freeway or I. DeQuincey Newman Freeway while the 0.7 miles (1.1 km) of surface street is part of Bull Street.
Tunnelvision is a 50 ft x 75 ft large trompe-l'œil painting, by Blue Sky, on a building in Columbia, South Carolina, USA, which shows a tunnel in original size. Tunnelvision looks very naturalistic.
Dreher High School is a co-educational four-year public high school in Richland County School District One located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Established in 1938, Dreher is one of the oldest public high schools in South Carolina. In 2022, Dreher was ranked the seventh-best high school in South Carolina and 1,017th in national rankings by U.S. News & World Report.
Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway, extending 91.2 miles (146.8 km) in the state of South Carolina, from the southern terminus at an interchange with I-26 near Columbia, north to the North Carolina state line near Rock Hill and Charlotte, North Carolina.
As defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and used by the U.S. Census Bureau for statistical purposes only, the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, is an area consisting of six counties in central South Carolina, anchored by the city of Columbia. The current population has an estimation of 837,092. It is the second-largest metropolitan statistical area in the state of South Carolina, since the Anderson metropolitan statistical area was combined with Greenville's following the 2010 census.
The McMaster School, built in 1911, is an historic building located at 1106 Pickens Street on the corner of Senate Street in Columbia, South Carolina. It was designed by noted Columbia architect William Augustus Edwards of the firm of Edwards and Walter. Edwards and his partner, Frank C. Walter, designed sixteen schools according to standardized guidelines established by the state legislature in 1905. The architects chose a Renaissance Revival style with H-shaped floor plans used as the standard for the state in buildings designed and constructed by other architects. The State newspaper declared it the "handsomest school building in Columbia" when it opened in 1911.
Horrel Hill is an unincorporated community in Lower Richland County, South Carolina, United States. Situated south of Fort Jackson and northwest of McEntire Joint National Guard Base, it is centered at approximately the intersection of Garner's Ferry Road and Harmon Road/Horrel Hill Road. Congaree Road meets Garner's Ferry Road about 120 meters to the east.
Gervais Street Bridge is a historic bridge in South Carolina in the United States and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is an arch bridge constructed from reinforced concrete. Construction began in 1926 and the bridge was completed in 1928. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Robert Adams VI was a lobbyist, political campaign manager and strategist, and political candidate from Columbia, South Carolina. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina to Ambassador Weston Adams (diplomat) and Dr. Elizabeth Nelson Adams.
Olympia is an urban unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Richland County, South Carolina, United States. It was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census with a population of 1,087.